The diary entries of a little girl who is now 30! ~ Part 2 - Page 198

The largest difference between specially commissioned drivers and generic drivers is the drive impedance, and certain damping characteristics. It merely makes a designer's job easier. It takes a lot of money to specially commission a driver that's very obviously superior to the generic variant, the most prominent example of which is the driver unit in the K3003. But few drivers are like that, not even the ones from Westone or JH. UE seems to take advantage of their volume sales and large financial backing as well, but even the designs they commission are not too far away from stock.

CIEM design has much more to do with tube length, damper choice/positioning, RC choice. These things greatly influence the final FR, impulse response, peak amplitudes/frequencies, phase/timing issues, etc.

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Originally Posted by tomscy2000 

Sorry about that! It was definitely a bit forced, and definitely doesn't resonate with most over a certain age (heck, I'm only 27 and I don't even watch/read those movies/books) but I figured if people are at least mindful of internet pop culture they'd understand the satire.

Haha, don't worry! That's simply the price for a self-imposed abstinence from most part of the tv and internet pop culture. Just don't wanna have my ass/eyes glued to a chair/screen too much... but it was still fun looking up all the names.

Quote:

Originally Posted by james444 

Haha, don't worry! That's simply the price for a self-imposed abstinence from most part of the tv and internet pop culture. Just don't wanna have my ass/eyes glued to a chair/screen too much... but it was still fun looking up all the names.

Yes, it would be very unfortunate to have your ass glued to a screen! 

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomscy2000 

The largest difference between specially commissioned drivers and generic drivers is the drive impedance, and certain damping characteristics. It merely makes a designer's job easier. It takes a lot of money to specially commission a driver that's very obviously superior to the generic variant, the most prominent example of which is the driver unit in the K3003. But few drivers are like that, not even the ones from Westone or JH. UE seems to take advantage of their volume sales and large financial backing as well, but even the designs they commission are not too far away from stock.

 

CIEM design has much more to do with tube length, damper choice/positioning, RC choice. These things greatly influence the final FR, impulse response, peak amplitudes/frequencies, phase/timing issues, etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by billybob_jcv 

Thanks! I had not considered the tubes as having a big influence - but it makes sense - the tube material would have it's own resonance properties, standing waves, etc - it's not just a perfect duct that transfers the waves from the transducer to the opening.

One of the things that surprised me when I was reading about IEM design was how tube diameter matters: Narrower tubes enhance bass. Counterintutive when you're used to the speaker world's bigger-is-bassier.

Tube material seems to be the same for everybody. When you're building customs, the priority is to get exactly the same sound out of exactly the same hardware but inside ears that vary greatly in size and shape -- it looks like everybody opts for the same vinyl tubing. The FitEar 334 is the rare exception, using metal tubes -- but it's a universal design, rather than custom, so they don't have to worry about having to fit tubes into varying spaces.

And yeah, the problem with UE currently is that it's the only company with the wherewithal to do really amazing, cutting-edge work, but it's also one of the most conservative of the cIEM manufacturers and demonstrates the least interest in publicly experimenting. (I continue to be intrigued by the UE PRM, but not $2,000 worth of intrigued.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by MuppetFace 

Finally, after a long wait, the Heaven VI is in the house.

 

TL;DR version of my impressions... FAD's best BA aside from the summit-fi FI-BA-SS itself. Really impressive!

 

Welcome back, FAD. Now if you just do a good job on the Pandora, I'll forgive you for the Muramasa. Maybe.

Great impressions. I liked the Heaven IV when I heard it. I wonder how far better the VI is. Unfortunately the shape and the price make me steer away from FAD iems. I think they're great overall but more of something you get after you already have a workhorse IEM. I myself am hoping the ASG-2 will be just that, otherwise I might just stick to portable headphones.

 

Warning: For Sylverant and Mutabor (Click to show)

 

 

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Originally Posted by Sylverant 

Happy birthday Coq de Combat! I hope you enjoy all the new toys planned in the upcoming months 

 

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Originally Posted by mutabor 

Happy Birthday!

 

 

Thanks guys... 

 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by ardgedee 

 

One of the things that surprised me when I was reading about IEM design was how tube diameter matters: Narrower tubes enhance bass. 

Well, smaller diameters push more air. This is pretty logic the more you think about it, it's the same thing with garden hoses and such; the smaller the diameter, the more the pressure and the faster the water will exit the hose. It's the same principle with ventilation and one of the reasons that you don't want any ventilation drums to choke the air flow.

Now, I don't know if this kind of ventilation knowledge is applicable when it comes to IEMs, but it would make sense if it does. At least when it comes to the "impact" of the bass. I'm sure there are lots of other reasons as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coq de Combat 

Well, smaller diameters push more air. This is pretty logic the more you think about it, it's the same thing with garden hoses and such; the smaller the diameter, the more the pressure and the faster the water will exit the hose. It's the same principle with ventilation and one of the reasons that you don't want any ventilation drums to choke the air flow.

You're mostly right, but smaller diameters don't push more air -- a fixed volume of air moves more quickly and exits at a lower pressure.

I believe the idiosyncrasy of tubing diameter has to do with how air behaves in a small sealed environment vs. a large effectively free environment.

In practice, I haven't seen many custom IEMs with noticeably different tubing diameters; possibly only the Spiral Ears 5, and that seems to be as much out of practicality as intent: There's not a lot of room for five sound tubes unless they're tiny.

One of the things I found interesting about the NT 6 Pro design is that of the three sound tubes, one has a filter very close to the exit (about 4mm away), and two of them don't seem to have filters -- if they do, they're situated very close to the drivers, where the wiring and assemblies obscure the view.

Originally Posted by ardgedee 

 

-- a fixed volume of air moves more quickly and exits at a lower pressure.

Not sure what you mean by exiting at a lower pressure, but moving the air more quickly is how I define as "pushing more air". By that I am not meaning that the volume of air is increased, but merely that the velocity of the air is. The actual volume remains the same; you can't move more air than there is air to move.

This is how ventilation drums and channels, and the "opening area" are used to manipulate the air flow.

Edit: But I'd like to know how the size of the tubes affects the sound waves and the frequencies.

Anyone looking for new smileys help yourself.

Pretty.

Izzat yours, tom?